


We met on Streetpass

by yamastarss



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Akaashi and Kenma bond over video games, Bokuto tries his best, College AU, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Getting Together, M/M, but no spoilers i promise, oh and Kenma is genderfluid, post-time skip references, yes this manages to dual wield both
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24766666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yamastarss/pseuds/yamastarss
Summary: “Well?” Kenma asks again as they reach for a menu, “How did you meet?”Bokuto grins. “We met on Streetpass!”Kenma looks up, raising an eyebrow in intrigued disbelief. “Like, Nintendo Streetpass? On the 3DS?”Bokuto crosses his arms smugly. “Cool, right?”Bokuto recalls the strange story of how he and his boyfriend met during their first semester in college while living in the dorms. Rated T for language.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Side KuroKen - Relationship, minor Daisuga - Relationship
Comments: 24
Kudos: 99





	We met on Streetpass

**Author's Note:**

> In this piece, I aged up Akaashi to be the same age as Kuroo and Bokuto. Everyone else has the same canonical age difference. Also, Kenma is genderfluid because I'm the author and I do what I want ;p
> 
> Anyways, enjoy!

“So how did you two meet?” Kenma asks as they slide into the restaurant booth next to their rooster-haired boyfriend, “Kuro told me that it’s quite the story, but also refuses to tell it.”

“You know that Bo is a much better storyteller than I am!” the perma-bed head says defensively as he makes room for the semi-blonde, “Plus I don’t think the owl head with frosted tips would forgive me if I robbed him the opportunity to talk about his boyfriend.”

“You wanna talk hair, huh??!” Bokuto retorts by sticking out his tongue tauntingly, taking his seat across the table from the instigator. Kuroo mirrors his best friend’s expression, and Akaashi rolls his eyes as he slides into the same side of the booth as his boyfriend.

“Kuroo is right about Koutarou being a good story-teller, though,” Akaashi says calmly as their waitress sets down the menu on the table, turning to her briefly to nod in appreciation and giving his thanks.

“Has his story gotten more and more elaborate every time he’s told it?” Kenma asks with a small smirk.

Akaashi chuckles as Bokuto squeaks his protests. “I can neither confirm nor deny that, Kozume-kun.”

“Please, just Kenma is fine.”

Akaashi adjusts his glasses nervously and squirms in his seat, visibly too uncomfortable to repeat the given name with such informality. Kenma sighs in resignation, “Or at least just drop the honorific. I’m not a boy, so ‘kun’ doesn’t apply to me. I’m not a girl either, though; I use they/them pronouns.”

Akaashi relaxes slightly and nods in understanding, still not fond of the idea of calling Kenma by their given name after meeting them only a few minutes before, but also understanding the need to respect their identity. Calling them by their family name with no honorifics was a good compromise.

“Well?” Kenma asks again as they reach for a menu, “How did you meet?”

Bokuto grins. “We met on Streetpass!”

Kenma looks up, raising an eyebrow in intrigued disbelief. “Like, Nintendo Streetpass? On the 3DS?”

Bokuto crosses his arms smugly. “Cool, right?”

“Technically we met because we lived in the same dorm,” Akaashi interjects calmly.

“Nuh uh! We never even spoke before Streetpass! Just because you knew who I was doesn’t mean that we met.”

Akaashi chuckles softly. “I guess that’s true.”

“Oh c’mon Bo, you’ve got to tell Kenma everything!” Kuroo exclaims as his partner’s gaze returns to scan the menu, “We all know that the whole Streetpass thing is ridiculous, but we also know that that’s not even the half of it.”

“Really?” curiosity still lingers in Kenma’s voice, “Then what’s the full story?”

Bokuto opens his mouth as if he’s about to start the story, but then almost immediately closes it and shifts his weight uncomfortably in his seat. “Umm, well do you want the short version or the long version?” he asks sheepishly, painfully aware how Kenma can sometimes find his rambling habits overwhelming, but also obviously wanting his friend to choose the latter.

Kenma looks back up at the couple seating in front of him. “We have time,” they state plainly.

Bokuto’s entire demeanor lights up once again after being given permission to speak freely.

“You can even tell them about the dirty bits,” Kuroo teases with a sly smile.

“Please don’t tell me the dirty bits.”

“There are no dirty bits…” Akaashi mumbles under his breath.

Bokuto laughs. “Okay brace yourselves, because I’m about to tell you about the start of the greatest love story ever in the history of ever!”

# # #

It all started at the beginning of our first semester when Kuroo and I moved into the Fukurodani dorm together. We opted to live in the Medical Sciences Wing since Kuroo plans on going to med school to be a pediatrician and I’m studying Sports Medicine and we thought ‘Hey, this would be a good and easy way to start making friends with people who were taking the same classes as us!’

Wait, I’m lying. The story actually begins the summer before coming to college when I told Kenma that I had never played a Pokemon game after I saw them playing the newest one. They looked so offended that I felt compelled to go to my nearest game store and get the first Pokemon game I saw, which was Alpha Sapphire for the 3DS. Only problem was that I also didn’t own a 3DS, so I bought one too. It’s black and super cool!

Anyways, Kuroo and I came to college and were ready to start making friends. Or at least I was; Kuroo was perfectly fine staying in our dorm room re-watching his favorite show for the 700th time when we didn’t have class or weren’t busy with intramurals. So I kept our door open for if anyone wanted to swing by and say hi, but no one ever did, and most of the time everyone else kept theirs shut so I couldn’t go introducing myself. I knew better than to go around actually knocking on everyone’s door and being like “Hey! My name is Bokuto Koutaro and I am ready to be your friend!” It was very tempting, don’t get me wrong, but I do have a basic understanding of the human pisces. ( _“Koutarou, I think you mean psyche.” “Ah yeah, my bad.”_ )

So you know how you can set a personalized message on your 3DS that it shows up when you Streetpass people? Well, I had the brilliant idea of setting my message to be my dorm and room number so that when people saw it, they could just pop in and talk with me! And before you ask, no, I never really thought about what we would even talk about if someone actually did come through. Also Kuroo later pointed out that I was just inviting someone to come murder me, but it didn’t happen so it’s whatever.

I start carrying my 3DS with me everywhere—class, the dining hall, the library, office hours, you name it. And every day I came back to the dorms and kept the door open in hopes that someone had seen my message and would come to say hi.

But in the end, no one came.

Honestly, it didn’t take very long for me to start giving up on my Streetpass dreams and accepted the possibility that I might be stuck meeting people the “normal” way or whatever. I was super bummed though because I thought my idea was fool proof, but I guess most people aren’t as ready to make friends as I am.

Here’s where it starts getting interesting. If you Streetpass someone more than twice, you can send them a personalized message. It can’t be very long since there’s a pretty small character limit, but it’s enough to send something simple. Like I said before, I set my default message to my dorm and room number, so “Fukurodani 124”. One day, when I was pretty convinced that no one actually reads their Streetpass messages like me, I get this personalized message from someone named AKJ. You know what their message was?

“Fukurodani 105.”

I jumped out of my desk chair and cheered, which startled Kuroo from his studies.

“Bo what the fuck!” he yelled as he threw his eraser at my head, and even though he’s a great volleyball player, his aim is pretty shitty, so I managed to dodge it easily, “You can’t just randomly yell in our room while I’m trying to study!”

“Sorry sorry!” I pleaded as I went to pick up his eraser, “It’s just that someone sent me a message on Streetpass and I got super excited.”

“Streetpass?” he repeated, stretching out his hand to get his eraser back, “What does it say?”

As I went to hand him his eraser, I brought my 3DS with me and showed him the message from AKJ. He furrowed his eyebrows for a moment as if he couldn’t believe what he was reading and then gave me a big, toothy grin.

“Hey, that’s great!” he said as he slapped my back (I winced in pain before “playfully” punching him back in the arm, careful not to drop my 3DS), “You should go pay this AKJ guy a visit! Sounds like he lives just down the hall.” 

“Well first of all,” I said as I went back to my desk, “I don’t know if AKJ is a guy. Just because their Mii is a guy it doesn’t necessarily mean that the person behind it is.”

Kuroo rolled his eyes.

“Second of all, I’m…. scared.”

“Scared?” Kuroo asked in shock before letting out a huge laugh, “The great Bokuto Koutaro is scared of a stranger he hasn’t even met yet?”

“Bro, shut up, it’s not like that,” I said in obvious frustration, “It’s more like… this person obviously read my Streetpass message, right? They could’ve very easily come to our room to see me, but instead they’re having me come to them.”

Kuroo blinked. “And what’s so scary about that?”

“Well, it’s like… you know,” I waved my hands around as if I could somehow pull an explanation out of thin air, “What if AKJ is way more invested in video games than I am?”

“...like Kenma?”

“I mean, I guess.”

“Well you’re already friends with Kenma so I don’t see the problem here,” Kuroo rolled his eyes and sighed, “Look Bo, no matter what this AKJ’s motivation is for messaging you or how dedicated they are to video games, they’re obviously down to hang out. Isn’t that you wanted in the first place?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I said, full of energy again, “Thanks bro.”

“Anytime bro,” Kuroo said before giving me a scowl, “But if you ever interrupt my train of thought like that again I swear to every god in existence that I’m throwing you off your bunk bed when you least expect it and using all of the chemistry experience I’ve gathered in the past half-decade to make your death as slow and painful as possible.”

“Eek ok ok I’m sorry,” I said, holding my two hands up defensively. I looked at my 3DS again and stared at the message, still processing what all of it meant.

Then I remembered that me and thinking too hard don’t really get along because most of the time I end up giving myself a migraine, so instead I just wrote down the dorm number in the message on a piece of paper, finished going through the rest of my Streetpasses, and closed my 3DS.

“You heading out?” Kuroo asked casually without looking up from his textbook as I gathered my keys, phone, and 3DS.

“Yeah,” I answered, “I’m gonna pay AKJ a visit.”

# # #

“So Akaashi-san, what are you studying?” Kenma asks as the waitress collects everyone’s menus, “I’m assuming something with medicine since you’re unfortunate enough to live on the same wing as these two idiots.”

Akaashi smiles as their boyfriends exclaim their respective protests. “I started as a Pharmacy major because it’s what my parents wanted me to study, but last semester I switched to Literature and Philosophy.”

“Literature and Philosophy? That’s a pretty big switch from pharmaceutical studies.”

“Yeah well,” a small blush creeps over Akaashi’s face, barely noticeable to those who aren’t looking for it, as he glances at the horned-haired man sitting next to him, “I had someone important in my life give a moving speech about how I should study what I’m most passionate about and convinced me that my parents would be supportive regardless of whether I followed exactly in their footsteps or not.” 

Bokuto hugs his boyfriend tightly around the waist, resting his chin on Akaashi’s shoulder and smiling up at him endearingly. “Was this important person that you speak of your super mega handsome boyfriend?”

Akaashi rolls his eyes and shakes his head lightly in disbelief, which invites Bokuto to lean in to give him several playful kisses on his neck and cheek.

“Why can’t we be like that?” Kuroo sighs, causing Kenma to glare at him, “I’m sorry I’m kidding. I’m obviously kidding,” he runs his fingers through his partner’s hair once and then kisses the top of their head, “I know you hate ‘gross public displays of affection’, and you know that I love you.”

“Yeah yeah,” Kenma mumbles indignantly.

They pause for a second before softly reaching out their hand towards Kuroo’s lap, out of public view, and snaking their fingers against their boyfriend’s palm and into the crevices between Kuroo’s knuckles that Kenma was all-too familiar with, squeezing their hands together in silent reassurance. _I love you too._

“Shouldn’t you finish your story, Koutarou?” Akaashi asks amidst a fit of giggles, finally managing to push his larger boyfriend off and adjusting his glasses, which got crooked during Bokuto’s last few kisses.

“Oh! Right right.” Bokuto clears his throat, ensuring that everyone at the table was paying attention before he continued.

# # #

So how our dorm works is that evens are on one side and odds are on another; don’t ask me why, I didn’t design the place. I lived on the evens side and didn’t really have any reason to go to the odds side since I didn’t know anyone who lived there. The one time I actually walked down it, literally everyone’s doors were closed so there was no reason for me to ever go back.

It so happens that Fukurodani 105 ended up being at the end of a long hallway, so as I was walking down towards it, I could see that the door was open and that there was a poster hanging on the wall opposite to it. When I was close enough to tell what it was, I literally had to stop in my tracks and take a step back in surprise.

The poster was for a movie called “Crow’s Angels”, and lemme tell ya something. I had never seen a poster for “Crow’s Angels” before because it wasn’t a big movie or anything. I actually saw it at the Karasuno Film Festival that me and Kuroo went to a few years back in order to support our friend Azumane since he did costuming for the film that his friend entered.

It was shocking to see, sure, but it got me more excited than anything because it meant that me and AKJ would have something to talk about besides video games! I mean, I don’t really mind talking about video games, but I just don’t know much about them, ya know? ( _“Bokuto-san, did you ever stop to think that the poster might have belonged to AKJ’s roommate?” “Not even for a minute.”_ )

Anyways, I kept going towards 105’s open door, this time my pace a little faster. I was excited! When I finally reached the end of that long hallway, I leaned on the doorframe and peeked in, looking around the really tidy and simple room for a person.

That’s when I saw him. The most beautiful man in the entire universe sitting at his desk, which was placed against the wall next to the door. And I’m going to be completely honest, I’m pretty sure I don’t have a thing for glasses, but damn those rectangular frames on this gorgeous person’s face just had me feeling a certain way.

We both stared at each other in surprise. My mouth went dry.

“AKJ?”

The beautiful man sitting in front of me blinked. “Yes,” he said softly, still staring at me. After a few moments, he cleared his throat and his face softened into something more neutral, “Well, actually, my name is Akaashi Keiji. Nice to meet you Bokuto-san.”

“Wait, you know my name already?” I asked, genuinely surprised.

His expression didn’t change, almost as if he expected my question. “It’s the name of your Mii on Streetpass. We also have class together.”

“We do?” I was becoming more and more confused by the second.

He nodded slowly. “Yes, the one-credit Leadership and Ethics in Medicine class that everyone on our floor has to take since we’re a part of the Medical Sciences wing.”

“Oh right, that makes sense.”

One of the first things I noticed about Keiji was that he spoke so formally. I mean, we’re the same age and yet he called me Bokuto-san upon meeting me. Even back in high school, anyone who actually talked to me just called me “Bokuto” with no honorific. Not that I minded it, not at all! It was actually really endearing.

What wasn’t endearing was the really awkward silence that followed that. I shifted my position so I was leaning back against the opened door instead of the doorframe. My eyes darted around and landed on the “Crows Angels” poster once again.

“Crow’s Angels, huh?” I asked, immediately kicking myself for how stupid I sounded.

Keiji looked up at his poster and then back at me. “It’s a movie that my best friend made in high school.”

“No kidding!” I exclaimed, leaning forward, “I saw it at the Karasuno Film Festival last year.”

Keiji’s eyes widened in surprise. “Did you now?”

“Yep! Honestly, I don’t remember much of it because I wasn’t paying attention to much of anything, but I didn’t hate it, so it must’ve been good!”

“I can assure you that it was.”

“Of course, of course.”

“Would you like a seat by the way?” Keiji asked, polite as ever, “You can use my roommate’s chair, he won’t mind.”

“Oh uh…. sure.”

Keiji started to get up, but I told him it was okay and walked around him to his roommate’s desk, which was next to his on the same wall, and grabbed the same desk chair that everyone in our dorm owned.

“So…” I started while taking a seat, “What games have you been playing lately?”

“I’ve been invested in Luigi’s Mansion recently,” he answered plainly. 

“Luigi’s Mansion?” I gulped, “Isn’t that supposed to be scary?”

Keiji stared at me for a few seconds before he shook his head. “Bokuto-san, it’s a Mario game,” he said like it was obvious.

“Just because it’s a Mario game doesn’t mean it can’t be scary!” I defended myself with a pout.

Keiji kept staring at me for a moment before the tiniest smile appeared on his face. “Only if you’re a Luigi.”

“What?!” I was so offended! “Akaashi! I know we’ve only known each other for a few minutes, but I’m definitely a Mario!”

He chuckled, and that’s when I realized something. See, I’m a guy that likes to make a room of people laugh and I’m pretty good at it. However, there was a certain satisfaction that I got from making Keiji laugh. It wasn’t loud like mine or ear-piercing like Kuroo’s ( _“I mean you’re not wrong, but hey!”_ ), it was… how do I describe it….

You know that feeling you get when you’re cutting wrapping paper and the scissors just start to glide? Keiji’s laugh is just like that. Smooth, low-key, and incredibly satisfying. No matter how many times you do it, you never get tired of it. It’s not easy to get and you keep trying over and over to make it happen no matter how many times you fail, but when the scissors finally start to glide… when I make Keiji laugh… man, I can ride that feeling forever. So when I heard his little chuckle, I couldn’t help but grin in triumph.

“How about you, Bokuto-san?” Keiji asked, bringing me out of my trance, “What games do you play?”

“Oh, I actually don’t play that many video games,” I admitted sheepishly, “The only game I even have on my 3DS is Pokemon Alpha Sapphire.”

“No kidding,” he replied pretty flatly, but without any judgement in his voice about my lack of experience with video games, “I have quite a bit of time on Omega Ruby myself.”

“No way! Who did you choose as your starter?” The excitement was building in my chest. Finally we had landed on a subject that I could talk about! “I was really conflicted between Torchic and Mudkip because they’re both really cute, but then Kenma showed me a picture of Blazakin and I just knew I had to have him!! He looks so badass!!! A fire chicken who looks like he dances disco and does Judo as a hobby!!!”

I could feel myself starting to rant, but of course I couldn’t stop because of who I am as a person. “And then when I found out about Mega Blaziken I was like ‘YOOO, SO COOL!! MEGA BLAZIKEN IS THE BEST!!’ So anyways yeah I chose Torchic and I named him Disco and I love him very much.” 

Askaashi looked at me steadily; his expression hadn’t changed with my rant. “Yeah, Mega Blaziken is pretty cool,” he agreed calmly.

Here’s the thing: Kenma, you know I’d kill at least seven men for you because you’re my friend, but you get this scrunched up face when I start talking too much and it always makes me really nervous. ( _“See babe? You’re not as subtle as you think.” “What? I don’t make a face, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”_ ) Anyways, even though I had reached a point where my other friends might have started trying to get away from me, Keiji was still there, listening. Not only that, he wasn’t judging me. He wasn’t making a face. He was just letting me go on and on for as long as I wanted.

It was both really comforting and really off-putting. 

I cleared my throat, fully aware that I had asked him a question and then didn’t let him answer. “What about you? Who did you choose as your starter?”

“I chose Mudkip.”

I waited for him to elaborate. He didn’t.

“Because Mudkip is so cute?”

“That was a deciding factor, yes.”

I very quickly learned that trying to get Keiji to say more than two sentences was like pulling teeth, but I was determined to make conversation with him rather than just running my mouth like my friends tell me that I do.

“What was the biggest factor?”

“It has the best stats of all three.”

I blinked. “Oh yeah? I don’t know anything about Pokemon stats.”

“It’s okay, a lot of people don’t.”

Despite struggling to keep up a conversation, I wasn’t going to give up on befriending Akaashi Keiji.

“How did you learn?”

“Ah, I just spent a lot of my childhood playing Pokemon and learning along the way.” He sounded… defeated? Like he was trying to justify himself to me. I titled my head in confusion and looked at him intently.

“Why do you say it like it’s a bad thing?”

“Was I?” Again with that weirdly calm voice… I could tell something wrong even though I couldn’t quite place it. “Forgive me, I did not mean it as a bad thing.”

I obviously didn’t believe him, so after a few moments of me practically staring him down, he sighed.

“Many people don’t understand how I’ve invested so much time playing Pokemon, my parents included.”

“Akaashi, do you think Pokemon is fun?” 

Keiji was visibly thrown off by my question. “Pardon?”

“Is playing Pokemon fun for you?” I repeated.

He blinked a few times before slowly nodding once. “I suppose.”

“Is learning about stats part of the fun for you?”

“…yes”

“Well then that’s all that matters!” I said as I interlaced my fingers and put them behind my head, leaning back in the chair, “Pokemon is a game and games are about having fun! No matter how seriously you take it or how much time you invest in it, as long as you have fun and don’t hurt anyone in the process, there’s no wrong way of doing it.”

Keiji looked at me as if I had said something completely revolutionary, which at the moment I found really strange. It’s just true! It’s a universal fact about games! But now that I know Keiji a little better, I know he probably didn’t feel like he could just have fun for the sake of fun. He always felt like he had to be better at everything he did, even the things that originally just started as fun. His grades, his extracurriculars, even Pokemon. In his mind, he can, and apparently _should_ , always be better. 

“So tell me Akaashi,” I said leaning forward, placing my elbows on my lap and resting my chin on my hands, “How does Mudkip have better stats than both Torchic and Treecko?”

Keiji stared at me, probably thinking that I was kidding. “Do you actually want to know?”

“Of course! I wouldn’t be asking if I didn’t,” I said while sitting up, “Also, I don’t have any homework due tonight so I want you to tell me everything.”

“Everything?”

“Everything!”

“Bokuto-san, if I told you everything it would take more than just tonight to explain it.”

“Then I’ll come back tomorrow! And the day after that if it’s what it takes!”

“Won’t you have homework to do by then?”

I winced. “Fine, I’ll come back tomorrow after I finish my homework.”

# # #

“And then we ended up talking about Pokemon until about 2 in the morning when his roommate came home piss drunk and reeking of alcohol even though it was a weekday,” Bokuto grumbles in irritation.

“That’s a pretty common occurrence,” Akaashi agrees solemnly, “but at least he’s never thrown up in the room and he’s out most of the time, not to mention the fact that he goes home every single weekend, so I have the room mostly to myself.”

“So Akaashi-san,” Kenma’s pupils were blown wide in interest like a cat ready to play with a brand new toy, “What’s the composition of your Gen 2 team?”

“I’m surprised you held out this long to ask him that,” Kuroo teases, but the semi-blond pays him no mind, golden eyes fixed attentively on Akaashi.

Akaashi’s eyes twinkle with excitement and the two start discussing stats, strategies, and opinions of different Pokemon throughout the generations. Kenma complains about breeding while Akaashi comments on the plot of each game. Bokuto tries to keep up by looking avidly between them as if watching an intense tennis match, but Akaashi and Kenma were using terminology that Akaashi either didn’t cover or Bokuto outright forgot, so it didn’t take long for the wing spiker to be utterly lost.

“Man, I didn’t realize how much Keiji was holding out on me,” Bokuto sighs sadly, poking at the food in front of him, “but I guess I should’ve known considering he really loves his video games.” 

“Welcome to the club man,” Kuroo nods in understanding, taking a drink from his water, “But it’s honestly kind of nice, don’t you think?”

Bokuto looks up. “What is?”

“Well, your boyfriend and my partner are obviously super passionate about their games and Kenma doesn’t really have anyone they can talk to so freely about them,” Kuroo looks over to the animated discussion happening next to them, smiles softly, and looks back up at his best friend, “I can only give them so much, but I know it’s not enough. This is the first time I’ve seen them so engaged in a conversation like this. It’s nice.”

Bokuto observes for a moment as well before he realizes that this, too, is the first time he has seen Akaashi so actively engaged in a conversation. Bokuto knows he’s the one who does most of the talking in their relationship and that Akaashi usually prefers to listen, but he also remembers the delight he feels when his boyfriend talks uninhibited.

He remembers the first time Akaashi read him one of his short stories, and even though most of the metaphors went over his head, he was fascinated by every note that his boyfriend’s voice hit as he recited his own work. Captivating couldn’t even begin to describe it. When Akaashi read the last words of his moving story, Bokuto remembered begging him to read another one, and although Akaashi argued that Bokuto could just read it, the taller man insisted that his brain could not produce the same kind of magic he felt while listening to him.

Now, as Akaashi exasperatingly defends his Pokemon picks to his new friend, Bokuto can still pick out the symphony that has never failed to make his smitten heart race.

“Bokuto-san, if you had told me that you have the coolest boyfriend in the world, I would have come up to meet him much sooner,” Kenma deadpans, ignoring their own boyfriend’s protest. Bokuto laughs.

“I do have the coolest boyfriend in the world, don’t I?” he agrees giddily as he rests his cheek on his boyfriend’s shoulder and nuzzles into it.

“Koutarou, you’re going to make me drop my food” Akaashi scolds with no real bite, but Bokuto still sits up while chuckling a brief apology, but not before placing a quick kiss on his boyfriend’s cheek.

“But even though you’ve explained how you guys met, you never got to how you got… here” Kenma gestures vaguely with their hand, “You guys didn’t immediately start tearing off each other’s clothes, right?”

“Pardon?” Akaashi replies with obvious embarrassment and Kuroo laughs at his partner’s bluntness.

“Alright, here’s the thing…”

# # #

Like Keiji said, he wasn’t fully able to explain all the stats about Pokemon and stuff to me in one night, so as promised, I went over the next night after finishing my homework. Our topics of conversation shifted away from Pokemon and into other things like movies, anime, school, food… you name it! I found out that he did the camera work for “Crow’s Angels” and that Ennoshita—that’s Keiji’s high school best friend—was the one who wrote and directed it. 

But our conversations always ended when his roommate came home—sometimes sober, most times drunk—so I always felt like I had to keep going back to continue where we left off. I then got his phone number so I could ask him if he was in his room during random times of the day because I was too lazy to go down the hallway to check if his door was open every time I was free, but we didn’t text much since we saw each other pretty much every day.

I also started studying with him since we were taking the same math and general science classes. Kuroo is not a bad study buddy, not even in the slightest, but he came in with transfer credit so he’s a few classes ahead of us and… well, we all know how he gets with his own studies. He thinks he’ll shrivel up and die if he scores below a 95 on anything. ( _“That’s not even remotely true!” “Kuro, remember that time you got an 82 on your Modern Lit test?” “…whatever.”_ )

So even though Kuroo tends to be a good teacher, Keiji was learning the same stuff I was, so it was nice to be on the same level, you know? And he was in the Honors sections of almost everything, so his classes were always going way more in-depth than mine. But there were times we did recruit Kuroo’s help with some concepts that our TAs hadn’t explained well and that the textbook was no use in. The first time he helped us, I promised Kuroo to treat him to lunch the next day and Kuroo is not one to turn down free food because he is still a normal college student. I invited Keiji to come too because it was meant to be a tiny celebration, and we couldn’t celebrate unless all of us were there.

After that, the three of us naturally started hanging out and planning impromptu lunch meetings. Then at night, I would go over to Keiji’s room and do homework on his roommate’s desk—who was actually a pretty cool guy when he was sober—and when we weren’t working, we would talk. Well, okay, it was me doing most of the talking with Keiji answering the questions I would occasionally ask him and sometimes adding his opinions to whatever bullshit I was spewing.

This went on for about… two? three weeks? Something like that. Then, one day—it was a Tuesday and yes, the day of the week is important to the story—I was getting ready to go over to Keiji’s room when a weird realization hit me just hit me out of the blue.

I was always the one who went over to see Keiji. I was always the one who texted first. I was always the one inviting him to lunch. I was always the one who wanted to see him.

So then I thought… what if Keiji didn’t actually like me? What if he was just tolerating me? Would he even care if I stopped talking to him? Would he be relieved?

And listen, Keiji did nothing to make me feel that way. He was always wonderful to me; he listened to every single one of my rants, answered the 2 million questions I would ask during our study sessions, and sometimes even laughed at my stupid jokes. It’s just that sometimes I get into my own head because my brain can be mean and work against me, but once I let myself go down that slippery slope…

Suddenly my mood went from really excited to see Akaashi Keiji again to just downright dejected.

In the years that Kuroo has been my best friend, he’s developed this sixth sense to my never-ending mood swings, so it wasn’t a surprise that he could almost immediately tell that there was something wrong with me. He stopped reading or studying or whatever and looked up in concern.

“You good?”

“Yeah…” I lied, “I don’t think I’ll hang out with Akaashi today.”

“Why?” Kuroo asked, almost like he was scared, “Did something happen?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“You don’t think so?”

“I mean no, nothing happened. It’s just…” I slumped on my desk chair and slid down, “I just feel like staying in and hanging out with my best bro, ya know?”

Kuroo gave me a look; he obviously didn’t believe me. “I mean I guess we can. I still have like, an hour or two left of homework I need to finish before we can do anything though.”

“That’s fine, I’ll just play on my 3DS until then,” I said as I reached for my backpack.

“Don’t you have a huge Chem exam on Friday you should be studying for though?”

“Yeah, but I’ve been keeping up with my homework and actually paying attention during lecture, so I feel like—” I furrowed my eyebrows, “Oh shit, I think I left my 3DS at Akaashi’s place.”

“You want me to get it for you?”

“Nah it’s fine. I’ll be right back.”

Going to Keiji’s room in the state I was in made me feel like I was back on that first day that I went to go meet AKJ, except thirty times worse. Walking that long hallway with the door at the end open, the women from “Crow’s Angels” staring down at me, I felt nervous, and you guys know that I never get nervous.

What was I supposed to tell him?

Nothing, I wasn’t going to say anything. I was just gonna get my 3DS and go.

I knocked on his opened door and leaned onto the door frame, peering over to his desk where he always waited for me. I had caught him in the middle of reading a magazine.

“Hey,” I said softly before stepping in, “I was wondering if I left my 3DS here last night.”

“Good afternoon,” he greeted me calmly, “You indeed left your 3DS here. I apologize for not letting you know sooner, but I went ahead and charged it for you.” He stood up to walk to his roommate’s desk, where my 3DS was charging.

I remember thinking _Wow, he’s so thoughtful._

I went to follow him and saw the thing he was reading: the most recent edition of Volleyball Monthly magazine.

“Yooo!” I cheered as I picked it up from his desk and skimmed through the article he had it open to, “Where did you get this?”

“Ah, I saw it in the Bookstore when I went to return a textbook earlier today,” he said, calmly as ever, as he was wrapping up his charger, “The cover features Oliver Barnes. That’s your favorite player from the Black Jackals, right?”

I closed the magazine and confirmed that, yes, Oliver Barnes was on the cover of Volleyball Monthly. I looked over at Keiji, blinking in surprise. “When did I tell you that?”

“Last week I think?”

I was in shock. I mean, he was right, Oliver Barnes is my favorite player from the Black Jackals, but I had no memory of mentioning him. I knew that I had talked about volleyball at some point during the past few weeks of talking and probably brought up the Black Jackals, but I don’t remember ever mentioning Oliver Barnes by name. Well, obviously I did because Keiji remembered.

I remember thinking _Wow, he actually pays attention to what I say._

“Well, I just came to grab this,” I said as Keiji handed me my 3DS, careful to avoid eye contact.

“Oh? Are you not staying tonight?” He sounded… disappointed.

“Ahh no, I forgot that promised Kuroo that we could practice for our intramural game tonight,” I lied, scratching the back of my head.

“With Sawamura? Or did you invite Oikawa too?”

I was thrown off yet again. “When did I tell you about them?”

Keiji blinked. “Three days ago.”

Despite being impressed with his attentiveness, I couldn’t just drop my lie. “With both of them, yeah.”

“Then don’t let me keep you,” he gave me a polite nod, “I’ll see you later.”

We both stood there for a second. I didn’t want to go, but I couldn’t just take everything back and say “Hey actually, I lied to you! I was feeling insecure about our friendship because I got it in my head that you don’t actually care about me because you don’t show appreciation the same way I do! I lied to see if you would chase after me even though I wasn’t giving you any indication that I wanted to talk about what was going through my mind!”

So instead, I turned around and left Keiji’s dorm room, head hanging and my fully charged 3DS in hand.

As I started walking down the hallway, I heard the door close behind me.

I couldn’t even look back. My mind reeled with a billion and one thoughts about what just happened, but struggled to catch one long enough to process. I kept going back on just how kind Keiji was to me. Even though he wasn’t texting me first or inviting me to lunch, he obviously cared about me by remembering the small things. Although I was used to talking, I never considered that anyone was actually interested in the stuff I had to say. Keiji remembered the things that even I thought were unimportant.

 _Holy shit,_ I realized suddenly as I stopped right in front of my dorm room, _I think I have a crush on Akaashi Keiji._

“Bro!” I said as I slammed my dorm room door open, “I think I like Akaashi!”

“Wh—” Kuroo’s expression quickly turned from anger at the barging into genuine confusion, “What did you say?”

“I think I like Akaashi!”

He blinked once before bursting out laughing.

“Kuroo what the fuck?” I asked, confused and hurt that he found my confession funny, “Why are you laughing?”

“I-I’m sorry” he said, trying to pull himself together, “I just—oh wow. You just now realized that?”

“What do you mean?” I asked defensively.

“It’s just— It’s just that you’re so obvious bro! I’ve known that you’ve liked Akaashi for a while now. I mean, c’mon! You started paying attention during your Chemistry lecture when he’s not even there just so you can look all smart and cool in front of him when you do homework together!”

I stared at him for a moment, trying to come up with any sort of comeback, but he gave me a knowing look that let me know that I had already lost the argument. I groaned loudly in defeat as I made my way over to my desk, slumping on my chair and grabbing my hair in frustration.

Here’s the thing. There are two facts about me that you guys already know: I hate secrets, and I’m really bad about holding back my emotions. If I have a problem with you, I’ll tell you. If I’m in love with you, I want you to know. I don’t like tiptoeing around people, and not being honest about your feelings about them is a guaranteed way of making you act weird around them. 

So when I figured out that I liked Akaashi Keiji, I wanted to confess to him immediately. One teensy problem though. Remember that big Chem test that I mentioned earlier? It was going to be that Friday, which was 3 days away from my revelation. Even though I felt decently confident about it, I still needed to do well on it because it was worth something ridiculous like 30% of my final grade.

This meant that one of two things would happen if I confessed to Keiji before the test:

  1. He rejects me. I’m too sad to study. I fail my test.
  2. He reciprocates my feelings. I’m overjoyed and spend so much time thinking about Keiji that I don’t study. I fail my test.



I work in extremes, so there was no in between for me and that’s just how it was going to be. That is why I chose to avoid those two scenarios altogether and just not tell Keiji that I liked him until after our Chemistry test. 

“Alright then,” Kuroo said as he spun his chair around to face me, “what’s the plan?”

“To avoid him as much as possible.” I say with determination.

He snorted. “Yeah good luck with that.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Nothing!” he threw his hands up defensively, “Just good luck avoiding the one person who’s been keeping your ass motivated in that class.”

“Well… couldn’t you tutor me yourself?” I asked, putting on my best puppy dog eyes.

Kuroo scoffed. “Bro, I have an Organic Chemistry exam that same day that I’m studying for myself. And before you go saying that they’re both Chemistry so the content overlaps, I will kindly tell you to fuck off.”

I was running out of ideas. “Well what if—”

“Don’t go ask Oika'a-kun either. He’s in the same boat as I am.”

By the way, Oika'a-kun is Kuroo’s nickname for Oikawa Tooru, who was our neighbor and another Sports Medicine major like me. Like Kuroo, he came in with transfer credit and was ahead so… wait, I just realized that he’s also in Honors.

Are all of my friends in Honors?

Damn, I guess I attract the smart types.

Anyways. 

I grumbled at Kuroo’s response, but accepted my fate: in order to ace that exam, I had to study with Akaashi Keiji, who I had a big fat crush on.

# # #

“Why didn’t you just make a study group with other friends?” Kenma asks as the waitress finishes distributing the party’s food.

“Well, thankfully Keiji was way ahead of me and made a study group with me his own friends,” Bokuto says casually before sitting up straighter, remembering something excitedly, “One of them ended up being Suga actually!”

“You know Sugawara-san?” Kenma turns to Akaashi with surprise.

Akaashi nods. “He was my lab partner.”

“Small world!” Kuroo remarks.

“Koutarou told me that he and Kuroo knew Sugawara from high school because he was the setter at a rival school, but how do you know him, Kozume?”

“Well, as you can probably tell,” Kenma pokes at their boyfriend’s side, which causes him to squeak and flinch away, “Kuro is fond of double dates, so we went on a few of them with him and his boyfriend when they were in town for training camps.”

“He’s dating Daichi!” Bokuto blurts out excitedly.

“The same Sawamura Daichi you play intramurals with?” Akaashi asks with calm curiosity.

“The very one,” Kuroo nods.

“Small world indeed,” Akaashi agrees.

“Yeah yeah, Daichi and Suga are super cute and all,” Bokuto grumbles impatiently, “but I wanna go back to my story and keep talking about my boyfriend!”

Kuroo laughs. “Alright lover boy, proceed.”

# # #

So I said yes to being part of Keiji’s study group because I’m not a total idiot, but I still avoided hanging out with him one-on-one for the next three days. You might think that it would be easy because “it’s not that much time”, but I missed him! I missed him really bad! I missed hanging out with him. I missed being silly with him. I missed talking with him. I missed making him laugh with my dumb jokes. And it always felt awkward because after our study sessions at the library, we walked back to the dorm together.

But time moves forward, even if slowly and painfully, and the days passed.

Our test wasn’t until like, 5pm or something, so everyone had the entire day to cram or cry, but since I had actually studied the days leading up to it with our study group, I felt ready for the exam!

After I got out of my last lecture that afternoon, I got a DM from Keiji. Hold up, lemme actually pull it up real quick...

> > From Keijii!! ♥: Do you want to grab lunch with me today?

I panicked when I received that DM for two reasons: first, this was the first time that Keiji had DM’d me first… woah I said first a lot.

Anyways, I was excited because it meant that Keiji hadn’t forgotten about me and it gave me validation that he wanted to hang out with me! But the second reason I panicked was because of course I wanted to get lunch with Keiji, but… I couldn’t, ya know?

So I responded with:

> > To Keiji!! ♥: down!!! We should also invite our study group :D

And then fear. I saw the little chat bubble icon appear for a few seconds, then disappear. Then appear again and disappear. That happened a few times before I got: 

> > From Keiji!! ♥: If that’s what you want.

Of course it wasn’t, but I still responded with:

> > To Keiji!! ♥: HELL YEAH

I immediately messaged the group chat and asked everyone to lunch. Most of them said yes, Suga included. We went to this small sushi place near campus that Suga wanted to try and generally had a good time, but I noticed that Keiji wasn’t looking at me, even when I was talking to everyone.

I knew I had upset him, but our test was only a few hours away and if I apologized then, I would’ve probably ended up spilling my feelings for him. 

_I’ll apologize right after our test,_ I told myself.

When everyone finished their lunch and started to go their separate ways, Keiji was among the first to get up and say his goodbyes to everyone. Then his eyes landed on me and I felt my heart stop. I could tell he wanted me to come with him, but I hesitated for way too long. He sighed, looked away, and gave everyone his famous polite nod. 

When he left the restaurant, I slumped down my seat, defeated.

“Hey, what’s gotten into you?” Suga asked with a not-so-gentle slap to the shoulder, “Is there something happening between you and Akaashi?”

“First of all, ow,” I said as I rolled my shoulder and sat up, “and second of all, it’s… complicated.”

“Is it?” Suga raised his eyebrows and I immediately knew that lying was not gonna be an option.

I sighed. “I like Akaashi.”

“No shit,” Suga said with a roll of his eyes.

“Did everyone know but me?!”

“It’s really obvious.”

“My roommate said the same thing,” I groaned, “I want to confess to him really bad, but there’s a teensy problem.”

“Let me guess,” Suga grabbed his chin and looked up in mock contemplation, “if you confessed before our test today, you wouldn’t end up studying for your test regardless of the outcome. So you decided that your best course of action was to avoid being alone with him at all costs.”

I blinked in surprise. “How did you know that??”

“I’m just smart,” Suga replied with a shrug and a devious smile. ( _“Wow Bo, where did you learn such a big word~?” “Bro I’m not stupid, back off!”_ )

“Whatever,” I grumbled while gathering my stuff, “I’m just gonna go back to my dorm and play video games to avoid thinking about my apparently obvious feelings.”

And so I did. I played Keiji’s copy of Pokemon X that he leant me a few days before I realized my feelings. The game was interesting enough that I kept wanting to play it despite it constantly reminding me of him. You know what it felt like? It felt almost exactly like that first practice after we lost Nationals our last year of high school.

 _I’ll apologize right after the exam,_ I told myself again.

And then the time of the test arrived. I kept checking my phone, waiting for an invitation from Keiji to walk to our test together. I thought that since he had texted me about lunch that he would text me about the test. I could’ve texted him myself, I know, but I already felt like an asshole for turning him down already that day, so I didn’t feel like it was my place to reach out.

But of course the text never came.

So I walked to my test alone, trying to not lose focus on the challenge I had ahead of me.

_I swear I’ll apologize right after the exam._

I walked out of the exam feeling decently okay about my performance, and as the universe would have it, guess who I bumped into as I was walking out the building?

Beautiful, brilliant Akaashi Keiji.

I opened and closed my mouth a few times like a goddamn fish, trying to find the words to say to him. You know what beautiful poetry I ended up coming up with?

“Hi.”

“Hey,” he replied calmly, with no hints of anger or betrayal in his voice, “so you’re finally talking to me.”

Shit.

“Yeah sorry, I’ve been… super busy lately” I lied. He could definitely tell that I was bluffing though, but he just nodded.

“Well, I’m glad it’s not because you hate me”

“Hate you?!” I cried in disbelief, “I could never hate you Akaashi Keiji!”

“I’m joking Bokuto-san,” he said with the smallest hints of a smile.

And finally, at that moment, I let my mind run free with all of the feelings I had for him. After three gruesome days of trying to shove everything down, I could finally acknowledge the obvious. He’s so fucking cute.

“Look, I’m really sorry about what happened at the sushi restaurant today,” I said, scratching the back of my head, “I kind of left you hanging.”

“Oh.” He didn’t sound surprised. “Don’t worry about it.”

I cleared my throat. “But hey, Kuroo and I are going to this BBQ restaurant right now with some friends if you wanna come with.”

“Are you going to watch the Black Jackals versus Adlers game?”

“Well will you look at that?” I teased, “Looks like Akaashi Keiji is becoming a volleyball fan.”

To my surprise, he chuckled. “I guess I am.”

So then we walked to the restaurant together. I was so happy to be talking to Keiji again! I filled him in on the past few days how I felt like I did in the exam. I told him about how far I had gotten in Pokemon X and tried fitting in everything I wanted to say to him in the short 20-minute commute.

When we got to the restaurant, Oikawa and Daichi were already there, so I introduced Keiji to them. The game started pretty soon after that, and Suga joined us after talking to his TA or something and Kuroo came after finishing his Organic Chemistry test.

“Alright,” Oikawa said after the game had ended and our bellies were full, “It’s Friday night and since we all just finished our big exams, we should all be free tonight. Why doesn’t everyone come back to Fukurodani and chill in my room?”

We were all down to chill the rest of the night, so we walked back to Fukurodani together, discussing the game and complaining about school. Ya know, typical college stuff.

Thankfully, Oikawa’s roommate was out for one reason or another, so we were able to take over his room and play some games. We settled for cards and played for an hour or so.

“Okay,” Suga interrupted after losing several games in a row, “I’m bored and want to play a different game.”

“What do you suggest Suga-chan?” Oikawa asked.

He grinned innocently, but something about his eyes gave away that whatever he was planning was anything but that. “How about Truth or Dare?”

Daichi laughed. “Suga, we’re not in middle school anymore.”

“I, for one, think it’s a great idea!” Oikawa smiled back.

“I’ve never played Truth or Dare,” Keiji admitted.

“Neither have I!” I exclaimed enthusiastically, “but I’m super down.”

So we started playing Truth or Dare. It started tame enough with mostly Truths about shit we did in high school or in our short time in college. 

“Akaashi,” Kuroo addressed the most beautiful man in the room after a few rounds, “Truth or Dare?”

“Truth.”

Suga and Oikawa booed.

“How old were you when you had your first kiss?”

Keiji blushed furiously. “I uhh” he stammered, “I haven’t had mine yet.”

I had never seen him that red before nor had I ever heard him stumble over his words.

“You’ve never been kissed?” I repeated dumbly. He shook his head slowly.

“Damn,” Oikawa said as he leaned back, “You’ve never played Truth or Dare and you’ve never been kissed. Did you even have friends in high school?”

“Dude, what the hell?” I glared at him.

“I mean, he’s not wrong,” Keiji said quietly, “All I ever really did in high school was study and play video games. I’m not exactly the social type, and although I got along with my classmates and always had someone to sit with at lunch, I was never invited to do anything outside of school. Not that I would’ve gone anyways, but you’re correct. I didn’t really have any friends in high school.”

The silence that followed was really uncomfortable; no one thought Keiji would be that honest. It was Dad-chi who broke the silence by giving Keiji a gentle pat in the back.

“Well, you have friends now!” he said with a reassuring voice, “You have us!” 

We all nodded and gave various forms of agreement.

“Bokuto!” Suga exclaimed, throwing up his arms and taking the attention from Akaashi.

“Suga!” I replied by also throwing up my arms.

“Truth or Dare!”

“Dare!” I said, because I’m no coward.

“I dare you to play a round of 7 Minutes of Heaven with Akaashi!”

And then a coward I was.

“Huh?!”

“That’s a great idea!” Kuroo shouted.

“W-wait!” I pleaded as I got picked up by Suga and Kuroo, “Shouldn’t Akaashi get a say in this??”

“Nope!” Oikawa was way too excited as he picked up Keiji himself, “Up you go!”

I tried fighting back, but I had two people on me and Oikawa is bigger than Keiji, so they easily managed to throw us into Oikawa’s tiny dorm closet.

After the door closed behind us, we heard a click.

“Yo what the fuck?” I yelled, “Did you just lock us in your closet??”

“The timer will start as soon as you stop yelling!” Oikawa replied without answering my question, but a few tugs at the handle confirmed my fears.

I groaned and leaned on the wall opposite of where Keiji sat.

“Well… we might as well get comfortable,” I said as I slid down the wall, our knees bumping into each other.

“So umm,” I said awkwardly, “How have you been?”

“Fine, thank you.” Keiji answered.

Silence.

“Gotten any further in Luigi’s Mansion?”

“Not really.”

More silence. This was worse than the first time I talked to him.

But as much as my friends are bastards, they also gave me an opportunity to finally explain myself to Keiji. I sighed.

“Look, I’m really sorry for the past 3 days.”

“Bokuto-san, you already apologized,” Keiji answered quickly but ever-so calmly.

“Yeah, but I lied to you. I said I was busy but that wasn’t true. Not really anyways.” I took a deep breath. My heart was pounding in my ears. “I was… avoiding you.”

“Did I do something wrong?” If I didn’t know any better, he sounded scared.

“Not at all! Quite the opposite actually!” I replied quickly, “You’re perfect! You’re amazing! It’s me that did something wrong!”

It was now or never.

“I avoided you because I realized that I liked you. As in _like_ like you. But I realized that my feelings were going to get in the way of my studies and didn’t want to fail my Chemistry exam today. If I confessed to you before the exam, no matter if you returned my feelings or not, I knew I wouldn't study because I would either be too sad or too happy to do it! But also I knew that if I hung out with you alone I would probably end up spilling everything.

You’ve helped me so much in this class and I actually feel motivated to study because of you! You deserved better than that Akaashi, and I’m sorry.”

I thought the silence before that was maddening, but the one that followed my confession was worse. Way worse. It didn’t help that I couldn’t see shit because the small amount of light that was coming from underneath the door was not enough to do anything, so I couldn’t read Akaashi’s face.

I started panicking. “W-well?”

“I apologize,” he said after a small cough, “I was just… caught off guard.”

“…Huh?”

“I was waiting to confess myself,” he said, “because of what you told me about the girl in your Chemistry lecture.”

# # #

“Wait, hold up, I actually don’t know this part of the story since Bo never actually told me what happened in the closet,” Kuroo interrupts with a mouthful of food, earning him a judgmental glance of disgust from his partner, “What did you mean that you wanted to wait because of girls in his Chemistry lecture?”

“Well,” Akaashi sighs, “in one of the very first times that I spoke to Koutarou, he told me about one of the girls that sat at the same table in his Chemistry lecture. Apparently, she thought that he liked her because he was being nice to her.

“He was really distraught by it,” Akaashi adjusts his glasses with nervous fingers, “so I began thinking that maybe the same could be applied to me. I thought he liked me, but his story made me believe that perhaps he was just being nice like he was being nice to that girl in his Chemistry lecture. 

“So I gave myself a month before I asked him out,” he fiddles with his hands under the table, of which Bokuto gently puts a hand over, “I figured that by then I would have a good grasp on his feelings for me, and if he continued to act the way he did around me, I would be confident enough to tell him my feelings.”

“Hah! See Bo? You’re so obvious that even ‘Kaashi had you figured out” Kuroo teases.

“Then he just stopped talking to me out of the blue and started avoiding me. I thought that he had figured me out… what I was… and that he was weirded out by me.”

“No!” Bokuto whines as he drapes over his boyfriend dramatically, burying his head on his chest, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry Keiji! I wasn’t weirded out by you, I swear! I’m just an idiot!”

“I know that now Koutarou” Akaashi says gently with a soft smile, running his fingers through Bokuto’s semi-silver hair.

“If I kiss you, will you forgive me?” Bokuto pleads playfully as he looks up to look at his boyfriend.

“I already forgave you, though.”

“Oh so you’re saying that you don’t want me to kiss you?”

“Bokuto-san, I don’t think you’re capable of withholding any type of physical affection from Akaashi-san even if he said no to you,” Kenma says off-handedly, obviously uninterested by the blatant display unraveling before them.

Bokuto laughs. “You’re absolutely right.” He pulls away and quickly kisses Akaashi’s temple. The latter fondly leans into the motion.

“So then you both stalled on confessing to each other?” Kuroo teases again with obvious delight, letting out a hearty laugh, “Here I thought that opposites attract, but it turns out that ‘Kaashi might not be the only idiot in your relationship.”

“Hey, don’t talk about my boyfriend like that!”

Akaashi shrugs, his expression returning to its usual indifference. “Maybe he’s just rubbing off on me.”

“It’s an unfortunate path you’re going down,” Kenma remarks with mock pity before Bokuto can object, “one that I have traveled down for many, many years. I can teach you a thing or two about how to make sure their brain rot doesn’t reach you.”

Akaashi chuckles and Kuroo rolls his eyes. Bokuto pouts and slumps a little down his seat, grumbling about how he doesn’t have brain rot or anything remotely like that.

“Aw babe,” Akaashi coos while reaching his hand towards his and intertwining their fingers, knowing full-well that the pet name would immediately lift Bokuto’s spirits, “we’re just teasing. You make me a better man every day.”

And as predicted, Bokuto sits up and grins. “You mean that?”

“Of course,” Akaashi leans in and kisses his boyfriend’s cheek, causing Bokuto’s skin to bloom red from the point of impact. Akaashi allows his lips to linger on his skin as he whispers gently “I love you, Koutarou.” 

“Alright alright, we get it!” Kuroo interrupts with a groan, “You guys are somehow still in your honeymoon phase. However, Bo still has a story to finish, so please continue.”

# # #

“I wanted to wait,” Keiji said, and it took me a few minutes to process what he was referring to, but when I finally realized I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry,” I apologized amidst a fit of giggles, “Akaashi, I love you so much.”

It was already hot in Oikawa’s tiny closet, but the temperature felt to have risen by 20 degrees, and it didn’t take too long before I realized what I had said.

“SHIT!” I exclaimed, “Fuck okay I know that came out wrong, but like. It didn’t. No, listen, I do love you, but not in like a ‘I would kill for you’ way. No, holdup, I definitely would as I would for any of my friends. You’re my friend, so of course I love you! I love all of my friends! If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t text you every day or try spending every free moment with you. Wait, that just makes my point so much worse.”

“Bokuto-san.” I suddenly felt cold fingers on my cheeks as Keiji grabbed my face, “We’re still playing Seven Minutes In Heaven, right?”

I swallowed hard and nodded. I then felt one of Keiji’s hands leave my face and rest on my chest as he started to put weight onto it, leaning into me. There was no way he couldn’t feel how fast my heart was racing as he bunched up my shit in a fist. I was so excited! I didn’t realize how badly I wanted to kiss him until that very moment. With the hand still on my face, he cupped my cheek, and even though it was dark, I closed my eyes and leaned forward myself.

“Time’s up!!” Suga shouted as he slammed the closet door open, scaring the absolute shit outta me. But it didn’t compare to how high Keiji jumped… which I only know about because I suddenly felt a strong impact on the bottom of my jaw as I suddenly got uppercutted.

The impact forced my jaw shut, and you know what was in the way? My goddamn tongue! And don’t let Keiji’s skinny figure fool you! He’s incredibly strong and can apparently throw a really mean punch, even when startled!

I yelped in pain and instinctively grabbed my mouth. Keiji apologized over and over while the assholes doubled in laughter. Except Daichi because he’s an angel, he helped us get out of the closet and made sure I was okay. He then started scolding the other three, which made them laugh even harder! ( _“It was funny as hell! I don’t think I’ve seen ‘Kaashi so distressed in his life and the way you screamed when we opened the door was hilarious!”_ ).

“So how was your hot, steamy make out session?” Kuroo wiggled his eyebrows.

“How close were you guys to taking off each other’s clothes?” Oikawa beamed.

“Did you use tongue?” Suga smirked.

“No!” Keiji and I shouted defensively at the same time.

“We didn’t even kiss,” I added quickly, trying to not let the embarrassment reach my voice.

Everyone suddenly went quiet and stared at us, dumbfounded. Suddenly Daichi let out this huge, hearty laugh.

“Alright, pay up douchebags,” he said—half delighted, half surprised—as he held out his hand towards the others.

“You made bets?!”

“Bo, you’re my best friend,” Kuroo groaned as he grabbed his wallet, “so it’s your fault if you didn’t expect this to happen.” 

So apparently, Kuroo bet that we would kiss “normally”—whatever the fuck that means—I think Suga bet that there would be tongue, Oikawa bet that we’d take our shirts off ( _“No, he bet that at least one of you would have a hand up the other’s shirt.” “Whatever, same difference.”_ ), and Daichi bet that we wouldn’t kiss at all. I can’t believe Daichi even put in a bet, but then again Daichi has been dating Suga since high school, so that man must have a little bit of chaos somewhere deep in his bones from the years they’ve been together.

Then they all started arguing, defending their bets to each other. I didn’t even know what to say, but as I looked at what was happening in front of me, I suddenly felt a light touch on the back of my hand. I looked down and saw Keiji’s hand hovering closely to mine. I then turned to look at him, only to realize he kept his gaze forward, but I could still see the small smile that was spread across his lips.

I grinned and tried to control the wave of giddiness that spread through my body by looking away myself. I reached out my hand and bumped the back of my index finger over the palm of his hand, silently asking permission to do the thing we both wanted to do so badly. We then simultaneously stretched our fingers and laced our hands together.

And guys, I swear I’m not trying to sound cheesy, but also I don’t care if I do—it felt like every decision I had ever made in the 18 years of my life were built perfectly to help me reach this moment. This moment where I felt like I could hold everything that mattered to me in one hand. I wouldn’t say that our hands fit perfectly together, but it felt like if we worked really hard, we would find home in this little gesture that we have.

“Alright, fine!” Oikawa suddenly yelled as he threw his hands up in frustration after something or another, “Akaashi, I dare you to hold Bokuto’s hand for—"

Keiji looked over to our friends and held up our intertwined hands, tilting his head with a look that let them know that he had already won. Once more, our friends stood there, dumbfounded.

“Beat you to it,” he said calmly as I burst out laughing, “Now you’ll have to excuse us. I need to speak to Bokuto-san privately. We have some urgent business we need to attend to.”

He looked over at me and gave me a look that let me know that I had no other choice but to go along with it, but it wasn’t like I was gonna fight it anyways.

“Uhh yeah! We have to get to it right now, immediately. Sorry guys to cut it short, but we’ll see you guys tomorrow, yeah?”

I barely got the last bit out before Keiji started pulling me towards the door. I waved my friends goodbye as we made it out with my free hand and Keiji politely bowed before closing the door behind us.

# # #

“And then we went to go make out in his room for like 3 hours,” Bokuto says, nodding at the pleasant memory, “It was awesome.”

“Oh? I thought you guys boned,” Kuroo quips, only half-jokingly. Kenma immediately slaps his arm with the back of their hand. Kuroo yelps out of surprise, but then instantly starts chuckling, “Honestly, I’m still surprised that it ended up being ‘Kaashi that made the first move.”

“As am I,” Akaashi sighs, “Even after all this time, I couldn’t tell you where the bravery that overtook me came from. I have yet to experience it again, but now it’s part of our story so I’m glad it happened.”

“So how long have you been together then?” Kenma asks.

“It’ll be 7 months next week!” Bokuto and Kuroo answer simultaneously, the former’s voice dripping with giddiness.

Kenma turns to their boyfriend in surprised confusion. “Wait, how do you know that?”

“Bo literally has every of their month-aversaries until the end of the year circled in neon blue marker in the calendar of our dorm room,” Kuroo sighs with a roll of his eyes. There wasn’t any malice in his voice though, if anything there was a bit of playfulness.

“Then congratulations are in order,” Kenma smiles at the couple.

“Thank you Kozume,” Akaashi nods politely, “And how about yourselves?”

“Kenma and Kuroo have known each other for forever!” Bokuto exclaims.

“Yeah, we’ve known each other for… what, ten years now?” Kuroo turns to his partner for confirmation.

“Something like that” Kenma nods, “Since he was 8 and I was 7.”

“But we’ve been dating for a little over three years,” Kuroo smiles fondly.

“Could’ve been longer if you guys actually talked about your feelings,” Bokuto mumbles under his breath.

“Well, not all of us are insta-love-struck idiots like you,” Kuroo retorts, sticking his tongue out tauntingly for the second time that evening. Bokuto responds with the same motion with twice as much flair as the two start arguing in incoherent noises.

“That’s impressive though,” Akaashi says to Kenma, completely ignoring the commotion happening next to him, “Childhood friends to high school sweethearts.”

The two couples then finish their meals while conversing about various things. Kenma catches Kuroo and Bokuto up on the things that were happening back in their high school, then returns to their conversation with Akaashi about different video games while Bokuto and Kuroo discuss the most recent game between the Black Jackals and Raijin. 

“We should have another double date sometime soon!” Bokuto cheers as they walk out of the restaurant, food coma beginning to wash over all of them, “That was fun!”

Kenma nods sleepily. “Sure, but only because I like Akaashi better than you.”

Bokuto laughs. “I’ll take it!”

“This was really fun,” Akaashi agrees, “It was good to meet you Kozume.”

“Likewise,” Kenma smiles, “but next time I’m forcing you to call me Kenma, okay?”

Akaashi shifts his weight uncomfortably and adjusts his glasses, but once again just nods politely.

“So bro, you’ll have the room until 10pm”, Bokuto says, “so you and Kenma can have fun. Use protection, okay?”

Kuroo smirks as Kenma groans. “Every time!”

And with that, the roommates part ways, hand-in-hand with their respective boyfriends, happy that each of them had met regardless of how strange or far fetched each of their stories may be. What mattered is that the universe deemed it worthy enough for them to be together at this singular point in time. Who wouldn’t be content with that?

**Author's Note:**

> So this fic was inspired by the real and actual way that I met my ex. Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction!
> 
> Anyways, I wanna give the biggest shout out to my beta readers, [Tathi](https://twitter.com/owlhashira) and [Charlotte](https://twitter.com/Iucietoo), and to everyone who joined me in writing sprints this past month in the _Under the Bridge_ Discord server. You guys are my inspiration and I dedicate everything to you. The late nights, the motivation, and the memes. Everything you guys did helped me get where I am here.
> 
> Please don't be shy and leave a comment (I thrive on validation) and follow me [on Twitter](https://twitter.com/yamastarss)!!


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